Chris CollinsHelping Struggling Dealerships Build Profitable, High-Performing Service Departments | Automotive Coaching Expert | CEO

Charlie Cox on How Acting Started from Insecurity

27 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:54

In this interview excerpt, Charlie Cox recounts that severe acne during puberty made him feel embarrassed and socially anxious, especially about attending weekend outings with his boarding‑school peers. To avoid confronting his insecurity, he joined the weekend theatre rehearsals, which served as an escape from the social pressure of meeting girls. Ironically, the theatre group introduced him to the very social connections he feared, including meeting "the coolest girls" and becoming a point of contact for his friends. The anecdote highlights how a personal insecurity sparked his entry into acting and shaped early social experiences.

Chapters

I got into acting because I had really bad skin. So when I went through puberty, I suddenly had— we in the UK, we say zits. Yeah, I had spots everywhere. In the US we say this. You say zits as well? Okay. Oh no, in the UK we say spots. Spots. That's— you guys don't say that, right? You say this. So we had spots. I had terrible skin and I was really embarrassed and shy about it. And on the weekends at boarding school, what do you do? But you go and you go to the girls' school and you meet girls. And I didn't want to go. I didn't. I was too ashamed to, you know, show up. And, and so I— but I couldn't tell my friends I didn't want to go and meet the girls with them. So I got involved in theater because we would rehearse on the weekends. Um, and, uh, that's how that started. That's really how that— to escape. Yeah. And then of course the irony is I met all the coolest girls in the theater class. And so then all my friends would be like, can you introduce me to Daisy?